relationship between line of aim and dominant eye

[Catch 22]

Check and see is you're cueing right-to-left on those bad nights. Do not use shooting the spots but rather use the dead-in black with deep screw to see if there's any side on the CB when it hits the cushion. Usually tightening the grip too soon is the cause. Sometimes upper body movement too.

Last night I was imparting left hand side on the ball when it wasn't going well

[Shockerz]

The tip is easy as it's in your field of vision and you can put it to the centre of the cue ball, the butt though is out of sight and you need to work out beforehand where your feet need to be in order to get the butt on the line.

The best way is to place the tip of the cue at the centre of the yellow along the baulk line, lay the cue down on the cushion with the butt bang on the line and stand in the right place to keep it on the line.

This is your stance and if it all looks wrong when doing this then throw your cue away and take up darts.

Just ordered some darts. What weight do you feel is best when using tungsten?

[blahblah01]

Just ordered some darts. What weight do you feel is best when using tungsten?

Dunno: but I'd go with a hard tip

[highestbreak50]

Look at video from 2.50 mins on - Barry says he is not aiming at a point he is trying to play the red along a line ...I think this is a very important point but hard to explain what he visualises. I know exactly what he means.

There are different ways of visualising - everyone guesses the potting angle - some better than others through experience. I just want to share what I do and its hard to explain - Barry is the only coach that I have heard explain what it is I do myself when visualising the potting angle. The object ball is in my vision but it is not the full picture (bit joking here the OB might as well not be there) because I'm playing the line - visualising the potting angle then playing the line of the shot is the thing that some people do not understand. Let me elaborate

You can not pick out a spot on a OB at distance with any certainty and can not see the contact point on a cut so just look at the OB ball and guess can cause you to steer into the OB and hit thick - you should be looking to send the ball down a line you picked out to make the OB go down the potting line - you should pick out the (other line) of the white ball when stood up and when you are down stay true to this line to make the correct contact on OB and so you should (stay true to the white ball line you picked out to make the potting angle). This is why some players can play sighting the white ball rather than looking at the OB because they are playing/ visualising the line of the shot correctly. Why look at the OB if you cannot see the contact point at distance or on a fine cut? Be aware of the OB but stay true to the line of the white you picked out. Try and visualise the angle you need when standing and dropping into the shot.

You can look at the object ball you can look at the white you can even look at the pocket too if you want and can keep still on the shot but staying true to the line of the white you picked out when standing behind the shot will help improve consistency I think. - Someone said its a game of lines like a computer game. it is. Its a simple thing that people over complicate - play the line. Experience of repeating the process repeating the potting angles working on technique and good old fashioned practice will only help you achieve.

Ps. I am not giving advice on dominant eye thing - just do what feels natural is my advice.

tnx for sharing the link, yeah thats how i aim

my problem is not aiming, my problem is i am offline when my hand touches the table however i already mentioned that it looks much better now when i am using my dominant eye, but my cue action delivery has decreased down to 10% from 90%

[Terry Davidson]

Last night I was imparting left hand side on the ball when it wasn't going well

So you must be cueing right-to-left which is the same problem I've been trying to cure and I found the only thing that helped was the loop bridge on power screws which can't be all that bad as Joe Davis recommended using it on power screws.

[Terry Davidson]

tnx for sharing the link, yeah thats how i aim

my problem is not aiming, my problem is i am offline when my hand touches the table however i already mentioned that it looks much better now when i am using my dominant eye, but my cue action delivery has decreased down to 10% from 90%

What is 'cue action delivery down to 10% from 90%'. Please explain that term

[Byrom]

If you are in the wrong position when your hand hits the table and you don't think it is aiming & sighting and finding the line that is the problem - then perhaps the problems you have is in getting down to the shot - The reason I said it is aiming and sighting is because you said you move around and aim when down and it does look different when down for everyone. Personally I do think you have both sighting and technical issues to resolve but I can say no more than I have already.

I am trying to help you but its hard explaining and not being there with you to see - not trusting that you have it correct when up and behind the line is a big thing - you should not be down fishing around to get the line. If you pick out the line right and you sight right when up I don't understand what you are doing wrong in getting down. Perhaps take a video from front and back showing you walking in and getting down and one on a straight blue to corner. A better camera angle showing front and back in line. People like Terry on here do all the dartfish video analysis maybe contact him for his thoughts.

- It is possible if you are aware to self diagnose. Not every player/person are open to this but if you are that kind of guy - There is a exercise on this thread for testing if you are lined up correctly and able to get down to the cue correctly as explained by the other member. Some coaches are better in certain areas of the game than others - Perhaps for you Sight right coaching may be the one thing that gives you your confidence back - if that is your problem it might help to contact a guy called Stephen Feeny. I think he does sessions out of the SW snooker academy. Other coaches may also be able to help.

If you feel confident to self diagnose then I think you should probably set up this exercise as explained earlier on if you read through the tread. It involves setting the cue up so its perfectly correct on the shot and then getting down to the cue.

Anyway - You have had my thoughts and suggestions now - I wish you well and hope you gain the improvements you seek.. regards B

[highestbreak50]

UPDATE: DAY 5

hi guys, just an update. its been around 5 days since i opened this threat. i have tried every possible way to fix my issue. as i mentioned 2 days ago that i was no longer offline once i cued under my dominant eye, however now i can see no improvement at all. i mean my line of aim is much much better if i compare it to centre chin, but it feels so uncomfortable which at beginning i thought it might be new and i might get used to it, i say uncomfortable because once i moved the cue to the right side of my chin, then the cue has changed its position from chest too, which means that my cue action has changed too.

an example, with centre chin whenever i missed a red it was 1 - 2 inches close to pocket, but today i missed lots and lots of balls, around 10-20 inches away from the pocket, then i thought whats the point of feeling online if i still miss and ruin my cue action

i would pay anyone here, if they could help me with this problem, i am serious - no jokes

thanks by the way for your replies

[highestbreak50]

If you are in the wrong position when your hand hits the table and you don't think it is aiming & sighting and finding the line that is the problem - then perhaps the problems you have is in getting down to the shot - The reason I said it is aiming and sighting is because you said you move around and aim when down and it does look different when down for everyone. Personally I do think you have both sighting and technical issues to resolve but I can say no more than I have already.

I am trying to help you but its hard explaining and not being there with you to see - not trusting that you have it correct when up and behind the line is a big thing - you should not be down fishing around to get the line. If you pick out the line right and you sight right when up I don't understand what you are doing wrong in getting down. Perhaps take a video from front and back showing you walking in and getting down and one on a straight blue to corner. A better camera angle showing front and back in line. People like Terry on here do all the dartfish video analysis maybe contact him for his thoughts.

- It is possible if you are aware to self diagnose. Not every player/person are open to this but if you are that kind of guy - There is a exercise on this thread for testing if you are lined up correctly and able to get down to the cue correctly as explained by the other member. Some coaches are better in certain areas of the game than others - Perhaps for you Sight right coaching may be the one thing that gives you your confidence back - if that is your problem it might help to contact a guy called Stephen Feeny. I think he does sessions out of the SW snooker academy. Other coaches may also be able to help.

If you feel confident to self diagnose then I think you should probably set up this exercise as explained earlier on if you read through the tread. It involves setting the cue up so its perfectly correct on the shot and then getting down to the cue.

Anyway - You have had my thoughts and suggestions now - I wish you well and hope you gain the improvements you seek.. regards B

thank you for trying to help me as i really am seeking for help
i dont know whats up with my aiming , i videoed earlier and i saw my coach few times, he is far awy which i cannot see more often, but for the last few sessions, he's been telling me that your heads drops down perfect.

he also gave me few examples, ( this coach used to play with neil robertson ) he said when neil was very young he used to bend down when he was behind the shot and used to walk towards the line while his head was down, he was looking the shot as if he was already in address position and he was walking towards the shot.

i did try that way however its not helpful

the other thing he mentioned one session, that it could be that you might be sighting or seeing the line of the shot with your stronger eye while standing behind the shot, and as you get down your other eye takes over. he also asked me to look with my dominant eye while standing and keep looking with that eye and get down. however this didnt help too

i asked him if it was my dominant eye, he said even if you put your cue under ur dominant eye since you are tilting your head, then again you are using ur other eye, which become cross eye dominant, so he meant that he doesnt want me moving the cue under dominant eye

he checked all my alignment with 2 chalks and lazer etc, he put 2 chalks oposite the brown spot and asked me to play up and down and checked my alignment. he also put the chalks near baulk line and checked my alignment. he also checked my cue alignment with centre pocket, to see if my cue is right in the middle of centre pocket. I passed all those tests, and my alignment was perfect

he tested my grip, stance, cue acceleration/timing(front/back pause) , he asked me to play up and down to check my centre striking , he also put the cue ball on brown spot and hit the black spot and asked me to play with lots of right hand side, and check if its going to hit the middle pocket, and the same thing with left hand side, so i was putting same amount of sides on both sides, and my cueball was going in off middle pocket on both sides, or atleast hit middle pocket

he did lots of tests and i told him , whenever i am down and if i am online then theres around 5 to 10% chances that i would miss a pot but i am only online 50% of the time

i almost read every single threat in this website forum so if it helps me to achieve or get an idea to fix my issue, bought few books nothing has helped me with my problem yet. please dont tell me to quit to game (anyone) because i love this game and i wont quit, yeah there are times that i wanna quit and relax but at the end of the day i cannot quit this game , because i love this game, and i love you guys too

i hope i can fix it one day
tnx guys , love you all

[highestbreak50]

What is 'cue action delivery down to 10% from 90%'. Please explain that term

i could play very good pots but now i cannot, its been almost 5 days since i have been playing with the cue under my right chin and i feel that the chest position has been changed, maybe because the cue has moved abit to the right side of my chin, now i feel when i pull back i cannot deliver it straight to where i have to . maybe i am trying to deliver where i am used to , i mean when i deliver the cue might be trying to hit the same chest area etc

[JimMalone]

I have to disagree with vmax as I think delivering the cue consistenly straight is by far the toughest thing to do. I still haven't got it as I still put left-hand side on power screw shots although the loop bridge seems to help but locking down my open bridge doesn't help at all.

Me also. I don't know where the problem exactly lies. I think sometimes I move my elbow a bit, sometimes my cue isn't firm on the bridge hand, sometimes maybe my wrist moves slightly. Really tough for me to keep everything under control.

Thank you very much for your input in this thread as well as for Byrom. Highly interesting to read. Not only in this thread, but also in other ones. I appreciate that some experienced coaches and players are willing to share their thoughts on here.

[itsnoteasy]

This is a great wee video especially from 3.30 to around 4.10, for me this is the secret to snooker, changed my game.
https://youtu.be/QlMxPngOYos
I should say this video didn't change my game just the idea behind it, someone else told me the same thing.

[vmax4steve]

UPDATE: DAY 5

hi guys, just an update. its been around 5 days since i opened this threat. i have tried every possible way to fix my issue. as i mentioned 2 days ago that i was no longer offline once i cued under my dominant eye, however now i can see no improvement at all. i mean my line of aim is much much better if i compare it to centre chin, but it feels so uncomfortable which at beginning i thought it might be new and i might get used to it, i say uncomfortable because once i moved the cue to the right side of my chin, then the cue has changed its position from chest too, which means that my cue action has changed too.

an example, with centre chin whenever i missed a red it was 1 - 2 inches close to pocket, but today i missed lots and lots of balls, around 10-20 inches away from the pocket, then i thought whats the point of feeling online if i still miss and ruin my cue action

i would pay anyone here, if they could help me with this problem, i am serious - no jokes

thanks by the way for your replies

You need to move your whole stance a tad to the right to get the cue under your right eye not just the cue, that way you keep your chest contact.

[highestbreak50]

UPDATE: DAY 6

i gave up cuing under right chin ( under dominant eye ) on day 6.
today i spent 6 hours trying different methods using center chin ( the way i normally cue )
as you all know that as soon as i am in address position, i am offline on most shots . thats how i normally cue.

today i realized that when i am in address position while offline, when i move my upper body by 1inch to right or left then i become online. my cue stays still and touches the exact spot on chin, however i cannot tell if my cue moves too or not. i also tried to check it by placing middle blue straight shot, and i could see that my cue was going to the right of the pocket ( butt of the cue ) when i was moving my upper body to the right by 1 inch, but sometimes i couldnt even tell the difference since i only move my upper body very little and its realaly hard to tell

by upper body, i mean head+shoulder+chest etc, however my legs are solid and never moves, but i made like 101 break in lineup today.
when do i do this upper body movement? so basically i tried this method today to see if it helps me to find the line of aim while in address position, so as soon as i am in address position i do a front pause , like 2 -3 seconds and i move my upper body to right or left to see how it looks then as soon as i am online, i start featuring and i never miss my shot.

now i dont know whats really going on


method 2 : i tried my normal cuing , and i moved my right shoulder higher than i normally do ( i am right handed player ) and also abit back. so abit high and also abit back, which brings my chest side ways , alittle bit and i could see that i was much online in address position then before


i would really be happy if anyone could help me fix this offline problem thing
thank you

[Terry Davidson]

There is only one way to fix this problem. First thing is start cueing into a mirror and check everything out and make adjustments to see what those adjustments are doing to you. Set the mirror up on the baulkline so it captures from the top of your elbow down to the bridge hand or better yet the tip of the cue.

Secondly make a decent video showing you from head-on. Borrow or rent a video camera with a tripod (an HD camera is best) and set it up over the top (black) pocket so it shows from the top of your elbow down to 6in in front of the cueball. Play 10 long blue stop shots and record then post that video on here. You seem to be really concerned about this so I think putting in a little effort on your part to let the coaches on here see exactly what you're doing as frankly I'm a little confused. I promise I will check out the video and you can also have a look by using Kinovea, which is freeware and will allow you to review the video frame-by-frame so you can really see where your going wrong.

Play each long blue as a separate shot so we can also see how you get into the address position.